E 420 




v^ 






v-* 












■. 









VV 






^ 



vT> s 






* ^ .1 



/ gW* : ^"\ ^^Hlv 






<* *" 

^ .•"-'* 






•w 



•<4» 



,o v 



^ 







(>--^~tN*W~<L^ 



NORTHERN NO! 



ADDRESSED TO THE 



DELEGATES FROM THE FREE STATES 



WHIG NATIONAL CONVENTION. 



AT PHILADELPHIA, 184a 

1 




v 



i# 






To the Delegates from the Free States to the Whig 
National Convention : — 

Gentlemen : There are occasions in the history of 
individuals and of parties, when the usual methods of 
friendly address are felt to be insufficient. The com- 
mon means of communicating and exchanging opin- 
ions, by private conversation or public debate, however 
well they are suited to ordinary times, are not adapted 
to a great ^emergency, when either the subject to be 
considered, or the person to be addressed, is of such 
importance that it becomes necessary to use the largest 
means at our command. 

In the present instance, both these circumstances 
combine. The subject to be considered is of vital im- 
portance to the country and to the world. Your rela- 
tions with it, and your present position in political 
affairs, make you the proper persons to be addressed. 
It needs no apology for the step I am taking. Nothing 
but an irrepressible sense of duty, compelling me to 
speak, whether I will or no, could induce me to take 
the trouble to address you. I am not in the way of 
such things. My course of life is out of the reach of 
political affairs. I can have nothing to hope and 
nothing to fear from your deliberations, except as I 
am interested in the general good, and expect to share 
in a general misfortune. 

I see, or I think I see, that a great outrage is about 
to be committed on the Constitution and the Morals of 
the country ; and though others, who ought to resist 
it, sit quietly down with folded hands, and contemplate 
in silence a calamity which they feel they will mourn 



over for years to come, I, with either more courage 
or less prudence, am ready to meet the threatened 
danger. 

It does not suit my habits to temporize at such 
times. I see an open and direct road before me, lead- 
ing to the result, I desire to accomplish ; I may fail of 
reaching it — I may err in my judgment — but I am 
prepared for either event. 

It is perfectly well known to the electors of this 
union, that General Zachary Taylor, has been named 
as a candidate for the first office in the gift of the peo- 
ple. It is perfectly well known, also, to all intelligent 
persons in the North, what has been done, and how it 
has been done, to bring this name into the prominence 
it now occupies. I shall not at this time speak of the 
means used, here or elsewhere, to influence your deter- 
minations at Philadelphia. I am concerned only with 
results. I somewhat admire the skill and activity 
which has been displayed in arranging the prelimina- 
ries for the contest in the convention. Courage and 
success, even in a bad cause, command a sort of respect, 
provided the cause is not too bad, and the success is 
not attended with disgrace to its heroes, disaster to 
their friends, and ruin to their country. 

It is on this subject that I propose to address you. 
It involves, in my apprehension, more serious conse- 
quences to this country, to the North, and to your- 
selves, than any question which has arisen shice the 
adoption of our Constitution. 

We are on the eve of a crisis in the history of this 
government. In the heat and turmoil of the battle, 
individual considerations and zeal for party success 
may blind many to the true situation of affairs. Per- 
sonal ambition may dazzle and confound the judgment, 
and lead away patriotism and duty captive ; but there 
are some facts and considerations that must have ar- 
rested the attention of every one, however much he 
may be concerned in the issue of the contest. 

The approaching Presidential Election will probably 
decide the future character of our government. Upon 



its issue hang questions of Foreign and Domestic 
Policy, and of Internal Peace and Happiness, of more 
importance than have yet been connected with any 
Federal election. Upon it hang, in some sort, the is- 
sues of life and death. The ordinary themes of the 
Tariff, Finance, Commerce, &c., that have usually been 
the rallying cries of party warfare are not heard at this 
time. Minor topics like these have sunk out of sight. 
Towering above them all, and absorbing or oversha- 
dowing all, is the one imminent, momentous, threat- 
ening question of the Slave Power. 

It cannot be disguised, and it ought not to be. This 
is to be the great issue in the next Presidential cam- 
paign : — shall there be a further increase of the Slave 
Power in the national councils 1 shall this institution 
be extended over new territory, or shall it be confined 
within its present sectional, local, and constitutional 
limits 1 

It is to battle for victory in this contest that the 
political hosts are now marshaling themselves. We 
may attempt to conceal the fact from ourselves at the 
North, and try to keep it out of sight by all sorts of 
political subterfuges ; but the South is more bold and 
more honest. She sees, and admits that she sees, that 
it is necessary for her purposes, that a Southern Slave- 
holding whig, who is also in favor of the extension 
of Slavery, should be thrust upon the North, and 
that we should be required with our own hands, to set 
a man over us who will achieve our political subject- 
ion, or at least secure the political supremacy of the 
South. It is required, in this struggle for existence, 
that the North should commit a political suicide, in 
order that the South may become her heir at law. 

To accomplish this end, the Southern politicians have 
resorted to the cheap expedient of carrying the war into 
the enemy's country. They are endeavoring to bring 
about a state of things in which it will be necessary, 
or appear to be necessary, for the whigs of the North 
to unite their force upon a Southern candidate. The 
more effectually to attain this result, the democratic 



6 

wing of the Southern army — the entire South fights 
under hut one banner, no matter how many squadrons 
she musters for the field — has selected for its leader a 
renegade citizen of the North-west. It would not an- 
swer to nominate a Slaveholder — that would not serve 
her turn — besides it would be useless. This pitch of , 
infamy was left to the free North. It has been reserved, 
as the last degree of coAvardice and subjugation, for us, 
after forging our own chains, during several years of 
wicked legislation upon Texas, Mexico, and Slavery, 
to fasten them upon our supple limbs, with our own 
willing hands. And all for what 1 I blush to say for 
what — for party success — for personal aggrandisement. 

It is to be feared that the whig party of the North 
will earn for itself, by its conduct in the convention 
and during the canvass, the uneviablc title of — the 
Betrayer of Liberty. 

What will the intelligent whig party be able to say 
for itself, when it is inquired of by the lovers of Constitu- 
tional liberty at home, and by the friends of Humanity 
everywhere, what hand it had in perpetuating Slavery 
and increasing the Slave Power X What answer will 
the free North give, when it is asked what disposition 
it has made of the rich legacy of the Revolution % " The 
blood of our fathers cries to us from the ground, 'My 
sons scorn to be slaves." ' The blood of millions of 
Slaves cries to us from the soil we are about to curse 
with the horrid institution, — " Fellow-men, do not rivet 
our chains." 

" Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom ; give ear unto the 
law of our God ye people of Gomorrah. 

" To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith 
the Lord. I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams and the fat of fed 
beasts, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks or of lambs or cf 
b.2-goats. 

" When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your 
hands to tread my courts 'i 

" Bring no more vain oblations ; incense is an abomination unto me ; 
the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away 
with ; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 



" Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth ; they 
are a trouble unto me. I am weary to tear them. 

" And -when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from 
you ; yea, when ye make many prayers I will not hear : your hands are 
full of blood. 

" Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from 
before mine eyes ; cease to do evil. 

" Learn to do well; seek judgment; relieve the oppressed, judge 
the fatherless; plead for the widow." — Isaiah, ch. i. 

It is not believed that there is any sincerity, on the 
part of Southern gentlemen, in the proposition to 
nominate Mr. Clay for the Presidency. The mention 
of his name, at the South, and the appearance of an 
organization in his favor, can be intended for no other 
purpose than to deceive the Whigs of the North. 
When the Southern delegates meet in the Convention, 
they will present an undivided front in support of one 
man. 

Mr. Clay himself undoubtedly is sincere in his at- 
tempts to thrust himself on the country again ; but he 
is a mere tool in the hands of Gen. Taylors friends, 
to be played off against a Northern candidate. We 
have no words to characterize properly Mr. Clay's 
ambition, and the means he has taken to secure his 
ends. If he were the gentleman he takes himself to 
be, he would imitate the generosity of his northern 
rival in 1844, withdraw his name from the canvass,and 
set himself heartily to secure the election of Mr. 
Webster. • 

But recent events have taught us that the " chivalry 
of the sunny south," if it ever existed except in a rhe- 
torical flourish, has long since gone, with the age 
whose departure Mr. Burke so eloquently lamented. 
Everything, at least in politics, is selfish, grasping, 
mean ; and it is so as much as anything because we 
submit to it, and oftentimes aid and abet it. 

" The fault is not in our stars, 
But in ourselves, that we are underlings." 

It requires no sagacity in Gen. Taylor's friends, or in 



8 

any one, to see that Mr. Clay can be beaten at this 
election more easily and surely than he was in 1844, 
with the same weapons, and on the same ground. 

With Gen. Taylor, however, the case is different. 
Here the opposition to free principles is firm and de- 
cided. This man is held up by the slave holders of 
the South as a master for the North during the next 
presidential term. No measure of arrogance and inso- 
lence is spared to oblige us to take him. Are we 
curious to know his opinions on questions, long con- 
sidered of vital importance in the administration of our 
government, and upon which every man of ordinary 
intelligence in the country, who has reached his 
majority, has formed a judgment, more or less deter- 
mined — we are slightingly informed that Gen. Taylor 
has no opinions on any subject ; or does not choose to 
express them, On the great questions of Slavery and 
the Wilmot Proviso — which more than any others 
excite the public mind — Gen. Taylor, when respect- 
fully solicited to give an opinion, is dumb. He is a 
Slave owner — a Slave breeder — and the candidate 
and warrior of the promoters of the Extension of 
Slavery. 

We may apply to this Military Autocrat, the hero of 
the murderous Florida war, which disgraced humanity 
and civilized warfare by the use of Cuba blood hounds, 
against a weak people fighting for their homes — the 
hero who is surfeited with honors gained in another 
war undertaken, as he knew at the beginning, to spread 
the desolation of military Conquest, and domestic Ser- 
vitude, over the Free soil of an unoffending sister 
nation — we may apply, I say, to this proud man, 
the indignant rebuke of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, on the conduct of the British monarch. 

" In every stage of these oppressions we have peti- 
tioned for redress in the most humble terms. Our 
repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated 
injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by 
every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the 
ruler of a free people." 



There are two capital objections to Gen. Taylor, as 
a candidate for the Presidency. And here I wish to 
disclaim any personal feeling against this gentleman. 
I am ready to accord him all the praise that is due for 
his military skill. I cannot speak of his general 
abilities, of his knowledge and experience in the con- 
duct of affairs, of his information in any of the sub- 
jects which form what is called the science of govern- 
ment, or of his political principles. I wish I could. 
If we are to believe his own statement, he is 
profoundly ignorant on all these topics of prime 
importance in the administration of affairs. He knows 
nothing but how to carry on war. His experience is 
confined to the camp. As for his principles, they are 
of that easy sort which will probably permit him 
to administer the government, should he get the 
opportunity, according to the Constitution as he under- 
stands it. 

These principles, and this ignorance, may suit those 
who are in a condition to follow blind leaders — and 
this kind of party or no-party tactics may be agreeable 
to those who are only anxious to find an opportunity 
of deserting the principles they have hitherto professed, 
and of betraying the cause of the North into the hands 
of its enemies. 

To such, if there be any, I have nothing to say. 
The North has been prolific of political Judases of both 
parties, and the stock is probably not by any means 
exhausted. I shall be able to address myself to these 
persons, should there be any such, after their 
treachery has become known in the proceedings of the 
Convention. 

But the objections to Gen. Taylor take a more 
definite shape than his principles — they are not as 
vague as his knowledge. 

He is a Military Chieftain — and he is a Slave 
owner, and in favor of the Extension of Slavery over 
new territories. On this last point his friends have 
distinctly spoken for him. He is not in favor of what 
is called the Wilmot Proviso. 



10 

The general objections to a military hero for a Pres- 
ident, have been repeatedly urged on the people of the 
United States. They are familiar to you all, and will 
immediately suggest themselves to those of you who 
were engaged in the canvass of 1829. I shall not take 
this time to call your particular attention to them. It 
was during this period, that Mr. Clay gave uttertance 
to the following sentiment, which ought never to be 
forgotten. 

" If indeed, Ave have incurred the Divine displeasure, 
and if it be necessary to chastise this people with a rod 
of vengeance, I would humbly prostrate myself before 
him, and implore him, in his mercy, to visit our favored 
land with war, with pestilence, with famine, with any 
other scourge than military rule, or a blind and heed- 
less enthusiasm for mere military renown." 

The smitings of a friend are faithful. Will you, 
Gentlemen, subject us to the rule of a military man, 
not like Gen. Jackson, long retired from the camp to 
private life, but now in the field, at the head of an 
army, with banners crowned with recent bloody 
victories 1 

But the nomination of Gen. Taylor, at this time, is 
liable to more serious objections, than were ever brought 
against the nomination of Gen. Jackson. This gen- 
tleman was something more than a mere soldier. 
He had certain fixed opinions, and considerable 
knowledge and experience of public affairs. He was 
bred to the bar. He had sat on the bench. He had 
administered a government. Though a considerable 
part of his life had been spent in the public service, 
only a few years had been passed in the camp. 

With Gen. Taylor, however, it is different. He is a 
mere warrior. It is not known that he possesses any 
knowledge whatever beyond what he has acquired in 
the military service. 

He is, confessedly, selected as the candidate of a cer- 
tain portion of the Whig party, for no other reason 
than because he is a military hero, and therefore avail- 
able. Available for what ] for a candidate ? — or for a 
wise and safe President ? 



11 

On this subject, Gentlemen, it becomes you to take 
heed. It is an awful consideration. You are under 
a responsibility above and beyond what belongs to 
your official duties. You are responsible to your suc- 
cessors, to posterity, to the world. By nominating 
Gen. Taylor, you are debauching the popular mind. 
You are leading this people to their political destruc- 
tion. 

On this subject, I prefer to quote the opinion of 
Mr. Webster, who is, to a majority of your Conven- 
tion, I dare say, a safer guide on all public, Constitu- 
tional questions, than Gen. Taylor. 

I quote from Mr. Webster's Speech in the Senate, 
January 14, 1836, on Mr. Benton's Resolutions for 
appropriating the Surplus Revenue to National De- 
fence. 

" Sin, If there be any philosophy in history; if human blood still 
runs in human veins ; if man still conforms to the identity of his nature, 
the institutions which secure constitutional liberty can never stand long 
against this excessive personal confidence, against this devotion to men, 
— in utter disregard both of principle and experience, — which seems 
to mo to be strongly characteristic of our times. This vote came to us, 
sir, from the popular branch of the legislature ; and that such a vote 
should come to us from such a branch of the legislature, was amongst 
the circumstances which excited in me the greatest surprise and the 
deepest concern. Certainly, sir — certainly, I was not, on that account, 
the more inclined to concur. It was no argument with me, that others 
seemed to be rushing, — with such heedless, headlong trust, such impet- 
uosity of confidence, — into the arms of executive power. I held 
back the stronger, and would hold back the longer. I sec, or I think 
I see, — it is either a true vision of the future, revealed by the history 
of the past, or, if it be an illusion, it is an illusion which appears to 
me in all the brightness and sunlight of broad noon, — that it is in this 
career of man-worship, marked every furlong by the fragments of 
othar free governments, that our own system is making progress to its 
close. A personal popularity, — honorably earned, at first, by military 
achievements, and sustained now by party, by patronage, and by en- 
thusiasm, which looks for no ill, because it means no ill itself, — seems 
to render men willing to gratify power, even before its demands are 
made, and to surfeit executive discretion, even in anticipation of its 
own appetite. * * * 

" Mr. President, it is the misfortune of the Senate to have differed 
with the President on many great questions, during the last four or five 
years. I have regretted this state of things deeply, both on personal 
and on public accounts ; but it has been unavoidable. It is no pleasant 



12 

employment, it is no holiday business, to maintain opposition against 
power and against majorities ; and to contend for stern and sturdy 
principle against personal popularity, against a rushing and overwhelm- 
ing confidence, that, by wave upon wave, and cataract after cataract, 
seems to be bearing away and destroying whatsoever would withstand it. 
How much longer we may be able to support this opposition in any 
degree, or whether we can possibly hold out till the public intelligence 
and the public patriotism shall be awakened to a due sense of the pub- 
lic danger, it is not for me to foretell. I shall not despair to the last, 
if, in the meantime, we be true to our own principles. If there be a 
steadfast adherence to these principles, both here and elsewhere ; if, 
one and all, they continue the rule of our conduct in the Senate, and 
the rallying point of those who think with us and support us out of the 
Senate, I am content to hope on and to struggle on. While it remains 
a contest for the preservation of the Constitution, for the security of 
public liberty, for the ascendancy of principles over men, I am willing 
to bear my part of it. If we can maintain the Constitution, if we can 
preserve this security for liberty ; if we can thus give to true principle 
its just superiority over party, over persons, over names, our labors 
will be richly rewarded. If we fail in all this, they are already among 
the living who will write the history of this government, from its com- 
mencement to its close."* 

These remarkable words, though uttered in 1836, 
are of powerful application in 1848. The Whigs of 
the free North adopt them as their watchwords and 
platform of political action. We mean to " maintain 
the Constitution, to preserve this security for liberty, 
to give to true principle its just superiority over party, 
over persons, over names," and we do not fear but that 
" our labors will be richly rewarded." To this end we 
are sworn not to submit to even the attempt to elevate 
Gen. Taylor to the Presidency. We believe that the 
attempt would be disgraceful, as it will certainly be 
disastrous. We protest against it, and we mean to 
act against it. Party organization will not bind us. 
Our submission to party is one thing ; but our devo- 
tion and allegiance to principle is another. We can 
never be brought to vote for Gen. Taylor, or any other 
man, who owes his nomination to the spirit of man- 
worship. 

Nothing short of a divine madness can impel that 
party which now holds in its hands the destiny of the 

* Webster's Spepch.cs vol. 3, pp. 56 — 58. 



13 

nominee of the Convention — I mean the Northern 
Whig party — to jeopard itself by a leap in the dark. 
The times call for wise and deliberate action. We 
have sources of deep anxiety everywhere. Our domes- 
tic affairs, under home influences and foreign disturb- 
ances, are already in a confused and perplexing state, 
and require the most masterly and delicate handling. 

Abroad, the appearance of things is fearful, threaten- 
ing to involve us in strange difficulties. Should Europe 
be engaged in a general war, of which there is now no 
improbable chance, new relations under extraordinary 
emergencies will be sure to spring up between us and 
European powers, calling for something more than 
mere personal courage and military skill. 

If ever the country and the world at large demanded 
that a great Civilian should be at the head of this go- 
vernment, it is now. 

And yet in the face of all this, with our Domestic 
affairs threatening distraction, and our Foreign relations 
liable at any moment to call for the use of the highest 
diplomatic skill and knowledge, you are urged to nomi- 
nate and we may be called upon to support, a person 
for the Chief Magistracy, who is a mere soldier, — igno- 
rant of civil affairs, — until within a few months un- 
known to fame, — and now principally distinguished as 
a successful warrior. He cannot be called a Statesman. 
He cannot be called a Whig. He has said that he 
would act independently of the Whig National Conven- 
tion, and be a President hi spite of you, should you not 
obey his dictation. 

It would have shown a decent respect for his Whig 
constituents of the North, if Gen. Taylor had feigned 
a little modesty, and, like Caesar and Cromwell, affected 
to put away the crown he secretly resolved to clutch. 

It remains to be seen what sort of stuff the Whigs of 
the Convention are made of. If they can nominate 
Gen. Taylor, after this expression of arrogance and 
contempt — they can do anything. 

It may be, gentlemen, that your convention will im- 
pose Gen. Taylor on the free North. But I caution 



14 

you to beware of it. The consequences will be mo- 
mentous. 

The great whig party of the North, the Conservative, 
Constitutional party, will be betrayed by its supposed 
friends. It will go through this canvass with a feeble 
and divided strength. In the great free states it will 
be paralized, and will stagger to its grave. It will go 
down in utter defeat and ruin. It will suffer a worse 
calamity — it will go down in disgrace. It will rise 
again, however, at the next Presidential Election, like 
one of the factions of the old French Revolution, to 
sweep away every opposition in a great, undivided, 
irresistible, sectional and geographical combination. 
There will then be but one party. Whigs, Democrats, 
Liberty-men, Abolitionists and all, will fraternize. 
They will have the control of the country in their 
hands. They will rally under the watchword of the 
Ordinance of '87. 

As is natural in such cases, extreme counsels will 
soon predominate. The compromises of the Constitu- 
tion will be disregarded, and the political power of the 
country will be perverted into a means to effect Uni- 
versal Emancipation. The South will not be able to 
resist the movement, the friends of constitutional liberty 
at the North cannot control it, I leave you to contem- 
plate the fate of the Union, in this event. 

It is confidently believed, however, that Gen. Taylor 
cannot be elected if he should receive the nomination. 
He cannot carry the States of Ohio and New York. 
He cannot carry the State of Massachusetts. Recent 
events in the Baltimore Convention, the present posi- 
tion of parties in the Empire State, the determination 
of many whlgs of the North to join in the convention 
at Columbus, in case a Southern candidate should be 
nominated at Philadelphia, — ought to make you pause 
and reflect, whether it is safe to venture upon any but 
a Northern man. It is not enough to say that Gen. 
Taylor can carry the states of Arkansas and Texas — 
u grand total of seven votes. It is clear that he can- 



15 

not secure the votes of New York and Ohio, an aggre- 
gate of fifty-nine votes. 

A single glance at the state of the Electoral College 
will satisfy any one that Gen. Taylor cannot be elected 
without the votes of the great free states : These he 
cannot obtain. 

I wish to ask you, Gentlemen, representatives of the 
Free North, if you are aware of the situation of public 
affairs, and of the position you now occupy] It is a 
sound principle of law that a man shall be held re- 
sponsible for all the ordinary consequences of his acts. 
Are you ready to assume the responsibility, at this 
time, in this emergency, of nominating a Military man 
and a Slave Holder, and Slavery Promoter for the 
Presidency 1 

Let not the sad spectacle be exhibited to the 
world, of citizens of Christian States pledged by their 
public policy, their general spirit, their benevolent in- 
stitutions, through a long course of years, to the spread 
of free principles, committing those states to the policy 
of riveting forever the chains of slavery over the free 
soil of a sister Republic. General Taylor will be nom- 
inated to effect this purpose. 

He will not be supported by the whigs of the North. 

It seems to be apparent in this emergency, Gentle- 
men, that your nomination should fall but upon one 
man. The wants of the country, the wishes of the lovers 
of Constitutional liberty, point to but one man — the 
great Statesman and Civilian, Daniel Webster. 

You may be assured that he can be elected if he can 
secure the nomination. No other man can carry as 
many Northern States, and he will carry as many 
Southern States as any other Whig. Mr. Webster is 
with the country, and the country is with him, on all 
questions of Foreign and Domestic Policy, the Tar- 
iff, Finance, Commerce, &c, and above all, on the great 
question of the further increase of the Slave Power. 

It is believed, Gentleman, that if the Whigs of the 
North show a proper determination, they can secure 
the elevation of Mr. Webster. He is understood to be 



16 

the only man of the free States who can command the 
respect and confidence of the Southern Whig party. 
The most prominent conservative politicians of the 
South have expressed a hope that the North would be 
true to herself at this time. Will you disappoint the 
reasonable expectations of the friends of liberty, and 
the supporters of Constitutional Government] Let 
there be no wavering, none of the contemptible expe- 
diency doctrine, which leads men to declare in one breath 
that Mr. Webster is their first choice, and to say the 
next moment that they are ready to vote for General 
Taylor. This amounts to nothing more nor less than 
saying, " We will vote in Convention for any man you 
please to insist on." 

Let the friends of Constitutional liberty stand firm, 
and insist with a becoming spirit on the rights of the 
Free States. 

If they fail in this high duty, " they are already among 
the living who will write the history of the Whig 
Party, from its commencement to its close." 

A Whig of the Free States. 



146 






V 



- •-•'■' 






v oV* 














^-j 









j. ** 




































^ 

























°* 










































°?n<V> 






' ^-^^ o°%^.°o /\c^\ 




